Does antithrombotic therapy improve survival with colorectal cancer?

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to evaluate the prognosis for patients with colorectal cancer who underwent surgery while receiving antithrombotic therapy (ATT) across all disease stages and for patients at disease stages 0–III. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 710 Japanese patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer between January 2009 and November 2015 at our institution. Approximately 35% of these patients received ATT. Of these, 199 (28.0%) received antiplatelet therapy, and 76 (10.7%) received anticoagulant therapy. We investigated the prognosis among patients with colorectal cancer receiving ATT, antiplatelet therapy, or anticoagulant therapy in all-stage and stage 0–III cancers. RESULTS: For all disease stages combined, no benefit was observed for ATT, antiplatelet therapy, and anticoagulant therapy groups in the overall survival rates (ATT: 87.8 vs. 78.4%, P = 0.23; antiplatelet therapy: 87.8 vs. 78.6%, P = 0.25; and anticoagulant therapy: 92.2 vs. 80.2%, P = 0.26). However, overall survival rates of patients with stage 0–III colorectal cancer undergoing ATT, antiplatelet therapy, and anticoagulant therapy significantly improved. (ATT: 98.5 vs. 92.7%, P = 0.01; antiplatelet therapy: 98.3 vs. 91.1%, P = 0.02; and anticoagulant therapy: 100 vs. 92.1%, P = 0.00). CONCLUSION: Receiving ATT significantly improves overall survival rates in patients with stage 0–III colorectal cancer.